CPS wrkrs may NOT enter home w/o search warrant

Subject: CPS wrkrs may NOT enter home w/o search warrant
From: (Fern5827)
Date: 7/8/2004 9:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

You can sue them and win, as this Ohio couple did.

Web: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/ Email:
Phone: 1-800-TELL-ADF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------


Need for a search warrant trips social workers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------


Release Date: 2003-01-29
Primary Category: Religious Freedom


ADF Media Relations
480-444-0020

Need for a search warrant trips social workers
Ohio authorities not aware of Fourth Amendment protections

Erie County, OH – A home schooling family has settled its case against Erie
County social workers and Vermilion police for the coerced entry into the
family’s home on Feb. 21, 2001.

“Courts have settled this key issue in other jurisdictions, and now it’s
settled in this jurisdiction. Social workers cannot enter a home, willy-nilly,
without a warrant,� said Gary McCaleb, an attorney with the Alliance Defense
Fund, the national legal organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, that
supported the case.

Paul and Linda Walsh filed a lawsuit after police and caseworkers entered their
home without a warrant and without permission. The social workers said they
were acting on an anonymous tip about unspecified “hazards� in the home,
and claimed they had a right to enter the home without a warrant.

The social workers threatened the family, saying that if they were not allowed
in the home they would take the children away from the parents. In papers
filed with the court, the Walshes said that a social worker even blocked their
driveway with her car when the family tried to leave to attend a church
function that evening.

The social worker summoned police, who frisked Mr. Walsh and threatened to
arrest him on charges of obstructing official business if he did not allow the
caseworkers into the home. Walsh said that he then allowed the workers to
enter the home rather than risk being jailed.

The caseworkers found nothing in the home that constituted an immediate hazard
to the family.

Instead of tolerating this official abuse, the Walshes chose to sue the
caseworkers, the Erie County Department of Job and Family Services, the Erie
County Board of Commissioners, the City of Vermilion, Ohio; and three Vermilion
police officers.

Defendants told the court that the Fourth Amendment prohibitions against
illegal searches and seizures do not apply to them in such circumstances. They
asked the court to throw the case out, but the court refused. The court said
the facts supported the Walshes’ claims against the defendants for
unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as for false imprisonment, assault,
battery, and infliction of emotional distress.

In a forceful opinion, US District Judge James G. Carr wrote: “Despite the
Defendants’ exaggerated view of their powers, the Fourth Amendment applies to
them, as it does to all other officers and agents of the state whose requests
to enter, however benign or well-intentioned, are met by a closed door. There
is...no social worker exception to the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.
....Any agency that expects to send its employees routinely into private homes
has a fundamental obligation to ensure that those employees understand the
constitutional limits on their authority.�

The court stated that because the Walshes refused consent, and because the
anonymous complaint did not supply persuasive evidence of an emergency, the
caseworkers had no option but to either “leave the [Walshes] alone and in
peace� or seek a search warrant.

The court further ruled that the police did not have probable cause to detain,
frisk, and threaten to arrest Walsh, since he was not breaking any law but
merely asserting his “fundamental right to be left alone.�

Kurt D. Anderson, a partner with the Elyria firm of Fauver, Keyse-Walker &
Donovan, represents the Walshes. Anderson, a graduate of Alliance Defense
Fund's second National Litigation Academy, said the training gave him the
background to help the Walshes when the opportunity arose.

“ADF's training and resources really helped us confront an issue that,
unfortunately, had apparently never been addressed in Ohio before,� Anderson
said. “As far as we could tell, nobody in Ohio had ever challenged a
caseworker's home inspection for failure to get a warrant. As a home schooling
parent myself, I really took the Walshes’ situation to heart. I admire them
for their courage to stand up for their rights, but it's a crying shame that it
would even have to come to that. It’s just a reminder that we have to be
vigilant and assertive about protecting our rights. They can be trampled on
even by well-meaning but uninformed government agents.�

Anderson expects that as a result of the Walsh case, training policies will be
revised for social workers not just in Erie County, but across the state of
Ohio. “The caseworkers in the Walsh case admitted they had never been taught
anything about the Fourth Amendment or search warrants. The feedback I'm
getting is that agencies across the state have gotten a wake-up call on this
issue.�

Anderson declined to reveal the specific amount of the settlement, which was
not stated in the court record.

For more information about home schooling and the law, please contact the Home
School Legal Defense Association, an ally of the Alliance Defense Fund. HSLDA
attorney Scott Somerville can be reached at (540) 338-5600.

The Alliance Defense Fund is a servant organization serving people of faith.
The Alliance Defense Fund provides strategy, training, and funding in the legal
battle for religious liberty, sanctity of life, and traditional family values.

www.telladf.org

DESCRIPTORS; CSB, DSS, DCF, ACS, DYFS,DCS, FIA, DHR, DCYF, DFYS, DCFS,DFCS,
DFACS, CYFD, TDPRS, DPFS, SRS,CYS, CYF, DHS, DSS, DFS, ACF, SCF, SoSCF, DSHS,
ILDCFS, FAMILY LAW, CPS, CHILD PROTECTIVE, FOURTH AMENDMENT, FIFTH AMENDMENT,
LAWSUIT, MONETARY SETTLEMENT, POLICE, DUE PROCESS